Call on Pedro Sánchez

Call on Pedro Sánchez

10/09/2018

WithCatalonia

We congratulate you on becoming Spanish president and wish you well in dealing with the many challenges you face. One of the most urgent of these, as you know, is the very worrying situation created by the former government’s abuses against human rights and democracy, reminding many of the Francoite dictatorship:

Amnesty International has denounced that police officers used excessive and disproportionate force, injuring hundreds of peaceful protesters, on 1 October 2017.

They have also declared that the Spanish authorities have misused counter-terrorism provisions to criminalise lawful expression, thus disregarding international human rights law.

650 legal experts reported to the Commissioner of Human Rights of the Council of Europe that the unprecedented prosecution and imprisonment of Carme Forcadell for her activities as President of the Catalan Parliament was not in accordance with the law and breached parliamentary inviolability.

Amnesty have expressed concern about the situation of the prisoners, stating specifically that “the ongoing pre-trial detention of Jordi Sánchez is an excessive and disproportionate restriction on his right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.

There is a very important humanitarian aspect to this issue. Many of those imprisoned for their political activities have children. Jordi Cuixart has now been in prison for most of the life of his one year old child, who has so far travelled over 30,000 km for them to see each other through a glass screen.

We call on you to take urgent measures to break with these abuses, promoted by the heirs of Franco, that endanger human rights and democracy.

We specifically ask you to:

As called for by Amnesty, urge the state prosecutors to act in the courts to bring an end as soon as possible to pre-trial detention, and to abandon accusations (such as “rebellion”) that have no basis in the facts.

End the repression in general and specifically the attacks on freedom of expression, as also called for by Amnesty, stopping the persecution of rappers, trade unionists, and many other people by eliminating the gag law (Ley Mordaza) and ending the abuse of anti-terrorism laws.

Abandon the PP’s authoritarian approach to Catalonia, based on the courts and the police, and take measures based on dialogue and the search for democratic political solutions.